{"id":197186,"date":"2026-03-19T00:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197186\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T00:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:51:13","slug":"demolition-has-begun-for-the-pulse-nightclub-in-orlando-to-make-way-for-a-memorial-of-the-2016-mass-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197186\/","title":{"rendered":"Demolition has begun for the Pulse nightclub in Orlando to make way for a memorial of the 2016 mass shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crews began demolishing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/pulse-nightclub-shooting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Pulse nightclub<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/orlando\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Orlando <\/a>on Wednesday to make way for a memorial that will pay tribute to the 49 people killed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/orlando-shooting\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">attack<\/a> at the LGBTQ-friendly club nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p>Construction workers began tearing down walls in the long-shuttered venue that were still scarred by bullet holes from the June 12, 2016, attack, when a gunman opened fire during a Latin night celebration, killing dozens and wounding 53 other people before police killed him following a standoff.<\/p>\n<p>The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse property in 2023 for $2 million and plans to build a $12 million <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/pulse-nightclub-shooting-survivors-family-members-tour-building-before-demolition\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">permanent memorial <\/a>that will open in 2027. Those efforts followed a botched multiyear attempt by a foundation run by the club&#8217;s former owner to buy the property.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2266700115.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"US-NEWS-PULSE-MEMORIAL-OS \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Demolition of the Pulse nightclub, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Orlando, Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The plan for the memorial comes at a fraught time for monuments to LGBTQ+ history since President Donald Trump&#8217;s second term began. The federal government removed a pride flag outside of Stonewall National Monument last year, following a National Park Service memo that prohibits the agency from flying any flags besides the U.S. flag and the flag of the Department of the Interior. <\/p>\n<p>A similar battle played out in Orlando last year, when local officials clashed with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis because workers painted over a rainbow mural on the crosswalk in front of Pulse. The move came after the Florida Department of Transportation issued a memo that prohibited &#8220;surface art&#8221; associated with &#8220;social, political or ideological messages or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Pulse attacker had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crews began demolishing Pulse nightclub in Orlando on Wednesday to make way for a memorial that will pay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[409,28,1432,139,141,140,24706,412,215],"class_list":["post-197186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-lgbtq","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pulse-nightclub-shooting","tag-ron-desantis","tag-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}